Power Play: Fan Power and Supporter Culture in the USA

Watching the LA Galaxy fans express their unhappiness with the team and their performance after a 1-0 loss to brought up a mixture of emotions for me. First off, a smile. It's always a little enjoyable to see a rival struggling and doing so publicly. But this isn't a schadenfreude post, nor am I getting ready to gloat about the Galaxy at the bottom of the West.

Rather, there were several comments from Sounders fans saying "it won't happen here!" and I think thats beyond being a little arrogant and short sighted. Galaxy have the most MLS Cups in MLS history and look how quickly things can change. The Sounders organization has enjoyed success from the beginning of their MLS but that doesn't mean that success will last forever or that tides don't change. *Knocks on wood* There are countless examples of top clubs in world football that have fallen far from glory throughout history. What makes Sounders fans think we are any different?

The comment section below the video really got me thinking about fan perspectives and larger supporter culture in the United States. One prominent comment compared the scenes in LA to a similar situation at AC Milan in recent weeks, mocking LA fans for thinking they were like Milan ultras. Now, it's true the infamous Curva Sud don't really compare in any way to Galaxy fan groups and that's likely a good thing, but this lack of comparison is noteworthy.

In European football, the supporter cultures have a tremendous amount of history and influence on the game. The supporter culture and tradition has deep roots and is more throughly embedded in the culture than in the US of A. Supporter groups can have outsized influence on clubs, and an unpopular manager can be made untenable to a club through fan protests.

The history of supporter groups in soccer is complicated; full of politics, mutual aid, criminal groups, antiracism and much, much more. It's also worth noting that many football clubs were started as just that, clubs or grassroots organizations started by everyday people, not by corporations and venture capitalists. It is not, however a culture or history of passivity and positive vibes.

In the United States, fan culture and its relative influence is much smaller and the relative roles of the fans are often limited within a given club. Fan protests are infrequent and usually received with a great deal of criticism from the media and outside sources. This goes for the MLS as well as other major sports in the United States.

The mocking of the fans in the comments section of the video below is a prime example of this. Protests and any sort of critical expression is attacked as not supporting your club. Shut up and enjoy the product is the message. Fans are primarily viewed as spectators rather than participants. Combine this attitude with billionaire ownership and all-powerful leagues and it becomes clear that fan participation and dissenting views are not welcome nor do they have any impact in the overall direction of the team.

When owners and leagues behave without much thought given to the actual opinions and voices of fans, a supporter culture that focuses on consumerism and a toxic, unspoken POSITIVE VIBES ONLY directly leads to passive support. This leads to a less passionate fan-base and the atmosphere around the grounds and the game in general suffers.

Don't get me wrong, supporting a team through wins and losses, good and bad is part of loving a given team. A positive, family-friendly atmosphere where everyone is welcome is a beautiful tradition worth cultivating. But a supporter culture that is without much power or voice in helping shape and participate in a club leads to a passivity and a lack of vibrancy in the stands and one only needs to compare US soccer crowds to those of other nations to see the difference.